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Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:58 am
by Tone Deft
the performance differences between a Mac and PC are far outweighed by all the stupid things people do to cripple their computers.


go download the demo FFS.

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:44 am
by bodhi71
Having used both operating systems, the only drawback to using Macs are the lack of VSTs.
Learning the operating system takes about a week till one finds a comfort zone.
If using a Macbook, the mouse pad takes some time, but once you come to grips with it, you wonder how you ever worked before.
You don't never ever have to defrag a Mac. It takes care of itself.

Every once in a while, I'll help my wife with PC, and that's when I truly appreciate my MBP.
As far as similar spec'd computers, I have a toshiba duo core 4 gigs of ram 5400rpm hard drive , which is similar to my MBP and there is NO camparison, MBP is at least 2x faster.

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:21 am
by 3dot...
bodhi71 wrote: As far as similar spec'd computers, I have a toshiba duo core 4 gigs of ram 5400rpm hard drive , which is similar to my MBP and there is NO camparison, MBP is at least 2x faster.
I call BS...
having worked side by side...
VJing with dudes with same spec'd MBs as my poor lil' Lenovo back'n'd'day...
and same sw (Arkaos)
I've found that my PC worked better...
not to say that MACs suck or anyhing... but x2 claim is just outrageious

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:44 am
by mr.adl
I own a (black) Macbook 2,4 Ghz, 4Gig RAM and a Desktop PC with 2,4Ghz and 2Gig RAM. The PC works so much better, even it has less RAM. I can use much more tracks and Plugin like Vintage Warmer 2 are handled better on my (XP) Desktop.
I had a DELL Laptop before and even that had only 2.0 Ghz it seemed faster than the Macbook. Going back to a PC Laptop (with XP professional) soon, as i am really disappointed in the Macbook Audioperformance and the Mac OS as well (as a long time Windows user it really feels weird to me how everything works).

Also i can´t really complain about stability issues on my XP Desktop or my earlier Dell Laptop running XP as well. No probs with Mac either, but sometimes the Mac freezes and the spinning ball thing goes on and on, which sux.

I´d say: go with which you are used to. My experience with Macbook where really horrible, but remember: i am really used to windows, so you might experience the very same. At least make sure to try a Mac somewhere!

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:47 am
by leedsquietman
I think people see the user friendliness of Mac OSX and the less tweaking of services and less need for optimization of hardware and device manager in the control panel as meaning Macs have go faster stripes - I use both daily and I agree with 3dot here - same specced mac and pc = very similar performance.

Especially given that Macs are using very similar components to their windows counterparts means the performance is very similar too. If the Toshiba really is 2x slower, then something is choking it, which can probably be remedied in the control panel with some driver/hardware/device manager tweaks.

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:02 pm
by 3dot...
leedsquietman wrote:I think people see the user friendliness of Mac OSX and the less tweaking of services and less need for optimization of hardware and device manager in the control panel as meaning Macs have go faster stripes - I use both daily and I agree with 3dot here - same specced mac and pc = very similar performance.

Especially given that Macs are using very similar components to their windows counterparts means the performance is very similar too. If the Toshiba really is 2x slower, then something is choking it, which can probably be remedied in the control panel with some driver/hardware/device manager tweaks.

I used to tweak the heck out of my XP...
right now I'm working with windows7RC
NO TWEAKING AT ALL...

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:21 pm
by adventurepants_
3dot... wrote:
leedsquietman wrote:I think people see the user friendliness of Mac OSX and the less tweaking of services and less need for optimization of hardware and device manager in the control panel as meaning Macs have go faster stripes - I use both daily and I agree with 3dot here - same specced mac and pc = very similar performance.

Especially given that Macs are using very similar components to their windows counterparts means the performance is very similar too. If the Toshiba really is 2x slower, then something is choking it, which can probably be remedied in the control panel with some driver/hardware/device manager tweaks.

I used to tweak the heck out of my XP...
right now I'm working with windows7RC
NO TWEAKING AT ALL...
totally. my XP DAW partition has seen no love since Ive installed RC 7. Live runs just great under Win 7, and latencies are about %10 higher than under XP for me.

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:22 pm
by adventurepants_
leedsquietman wrote:I think people see the user friendliness of Mac OSX and the less tweaking of services and less need for optimization of hardware and device manager in the control panel as meaning Macs have go faster stripes - I use both daily and I agree with 3dot here - same specced mac and pc = very similar performance.

Especially given that Macs are using very similar components to their windows counterparts means the performance is very similar too. If the Toshiba really is 2x slower, then something is choking it, which can probably be remedied in the control panel with some driver/hardware/device manager tweaks.
Toshibas have among the most bloated factory installs out there. Format that sucker and watch it scream. (Especially ditch the McAfees or Nortons antivirus it came with)

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:09 pm
by H20nly
adventurepants_ wrote: Format that sucker and watch it scream. (Especially ditch the McAfees or Nortons antivirus it came with)
+500. Same for almost any factory install on a PC.
Norton no longer is the way and McAfee just sucks. I have had to rescue many a machine from both the virus and the lying ass anti-virus app provided by those 2 companies - especially the latter.

I am pleasantly surprised by how this thread has panned out. gabgl76 I figured for sure you were gonna get bombarded with Mac Mac Mac and be simply overwhelmed by sheer number of posters. I'm glad to see that you can get the truth when it comes to this topic. In the end its more a matter of preference than anything as both platforms have ups and downs. I think you have got some honest replies from somewhat respectable type folks... :wink:

I should have a little more faith in humanity. :oops:

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:11 pm
by briandervish
gabgl76 wrote:
briandervish wrote:Ableton 8 on an HP tablet with Vista. No worries at all.
I have Vista ... should I worrie? 8O
No. I like Vista. I am using ASIO4ALL instead of the vendor drivers for my audio card, because the vendor drivers won't allow me to change any settings (?!). However, I am a software developer by day, so I'm used to taking a lot of crap from computers :lol:

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:31 pm
by bodhi71
3dot... wrote:
bodhi71 wrote: As far as similar spec'd computers, I have a toshiba duo core 4 gigs of ram 5400rpm hard drive , which is similar to my MBP and there is NO camparison, MBP is at least 2x faster.
I call BS...
having worked side by side...
VJing with dudes with same spec'd MBs as my poor lil' Lenovo back'n'd'day...
and same sw (Arkaos)
I've found that my PC worked better...
not to say that MACs suck or anyhing... but x2 claim is just outrageious

No, I am being sincere. This has been my experience, I've no desire to sway some ones opinion just for the sake of Mac vs PC.
When I switched to Mac I was in the middle of a project. With the track count of maybe 8 audio tracks and two midi tracks, my Toshiba would freeze, hiccup, stutter and fail so often that I was ready to call it quits, once and for all. And forget about running something like Analog Factory, even one instance of this vst could crash the PC.
So when I bought the MBP, I seriously questioned if the Mac was worth the money.
I thought for sure I was going to return it, it was a lot of cash for this sucker.
So the same project with 26 tracks two or three instances of Analog Factory , an instance of Rapture and I was running at 25-35% cpu!
To me that's at least 2x as fast, but probably more like 4x as fast.
And I'm sure with enough investigating , one could find a very powerful PC laptop, that might beat a MBP.
To me that doesn't matter. I finally have found a user friendly machine that can handle anything I throw at it.

So for ease of use= Mac
Build quality= Mac
Customer support= Mac
No need for drivers or driver issues= Mac
Power right out of the box=Mac
OS= Mac

If a windows based system could have provided the same specs or better, I would have stayed with a PC, and used the remainder of my cash pool for some killer gear.As it is, I am thankful for my decision. Knowing what I know now, I cannot see going back to a PC, The MBP is such a pleasant machine to use.
So just go for it, you won't regret buying a Mac.

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:43 pm
by Ryan6
gabgl76 wrote:Hi there everyone,

here is my situation:

I am looking foward to buy Ableton Live Suite 8 to create music (mostly House, Techno, Trance ... that kind of music)

I currently have a Laptop (HP G50, 2.0 Ghz, 2GB ram, DVD reader ... everything ableton needs to run (as described in the product specifications))

my question is:

Can I use my laptop and make it work correctly? (remember I only use it to create music, not for live performances!)

or do you recommend I buy a Mac? and If yes, Which one?

Regards,
I'm interested in using Ableton from scratch, but need to learn more about it. Have always used Reason, tends to be good with dance/electronic style music. Ever used it before?

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:01 pm
by adventurepants_
bodhi71 wrote:
3dot... wrote:
bodhi71 wrote: As far as similar spec'd computers, I have a toshiba duo core 4 gigs of ram 5400rpm hard drive , which is similar to my MBP and there is NO camparison, MBP is at least 2x faster.
I call BS...
having worked side by side...
VJing with dudes with same spec'd MBs as my poor lil' Lenovo back'n'd'day...
and same sw (Arkaos)
I've found that my PC worked better...
not to say that MACs suck or anyhing... but x2 claim is just outrageious

No, I am being sincere. This has been my experience, I've no desire to sway some ones opinion just for the sake of Mac vs PC.
When I switched to Mac I was in the middle of a project. With the track count of maybe 8 audio tracks and two midi tracks, my Toshiba would freeze, hiccup, stutter and fail so often that I was ready to call it quits, once and for all. And forget about running something like Analog Factory, even one instance of this vst could crash the PC.
So when I bought the MBP, I seriously questioned if the Mac was worth the money.
I thought for sure I was going to return it, it was a lot of cash for this sucker.
So the same project with 26 tracks two or three instances of Analog Factory , an instance of Rapture and I was running at 25-35% cpu!
To me that's at least 2x as fast, but probably more like 4x as fast.
And I'm sure with enough investigating , one could find a very powerful PC laptop, that might beat a MBP.
To me that doesn't matter. I finally have found a user friendly machine that can handle anything I throw at it.

So for ease of use= Mac
Build quality= Mac
Customer support= Mac
No need for drivers or driver issues= Mac
Power right out of the box=Mac
OS= Mac

If a windows based system could have provided the same specs or better, I would have stayed with a PC, and used the remainder of my cash pool for some killer gear.As it is, I am thankful for my decision. Knowing what I know now, I cannot see going back to a PC, The MBP is such a pleasant machine to use.
So just go for it, you won't regret buying a Mac.


The reality is that I can get a low end PC laptop with the same level hardware, using the same interface to perform as well as a Macbook Pro according to the Live performance test, at a third to a half less in price. However, i recognise that the tuning process might be unbearable to the non techy types who just want to get on and make music. Thats a role that Macs fill, and they do it very well, and its probably worth the premium they charge for it. Everyone wins!

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:15 pm
by rolfski
adventurepants_ wrote:The reality is that I can get a low end PC laptop with the same level hardware, using the same interface to perform as well as a Macbook Pro according to the Live performance test, at a third to a half less in price. However, i recognise that the tuning process might be unbearable to the non techy types who just want to get on and make music. Thats a role that Macs fill, and they do it very well, and its probably worth the premium they charge for it. Everyone wins!
+1

PC: pay less, tweak more
Mac: pay more, tweak less

Re: Ableton for music production. PC vs Mac

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:22 pm
by Hermanus
I started Music with computer with the macintosh of my father it was 16 years ago.

I worked with master track and was driving both a jx-3p and a marvelous Tx-802 which i still own and never resale.

Then one day I slipped during installation of my live set, the screen and the tower felt on the floor_
The computer survived and so the screen even if the image was a bit dephazed :oops:

A friend lended us his pc during a Xmas holiday with descent apps and VST's [that was all brand new for us]
So we moved to pc... the transition took the time but never had to complain or regret mac.
I was so happy to make some noise, the most important thing

I would love to buy a nice macbook...but my choice has gone to an asus, I fired the preinstalled vista, reinstalled a stable xp pro, all runs fine.

If mac would not be so expensive - or if I would earn more money ... :lol:

As said before, it's not about computers, but as long as you can be free to make your music, it's good.

This mac vs pc is a neverending story :roll:

oh last point, if I got a broken part in a custom pc [I always prefer this one, mounted by myself if possible] It's easily replacable by my own.

This is obviously not applicable to notebooks, don't make me say what I did not